yoga and the christian mystics

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Oft* OJijriattan iMgattta

By

SWAMI PARAMANANDA *

ii

Second Edition

THE VEDANTA CENTRE

1 Queensberry Street

BOSTON, MASS., U. S. A.

Reprinted from The Vedanta Monthly

. THE MESSAGE OF THE EAST

Issued by

The Vedanta Centre of Boston

$1.50 a year Single copies, 20 cents

Copyright 1915 by Swami Paramananda

YOGA AND THE CHRISTIAN MYSTICS

by Swami Paramananda

The origin of mysticism is to be found in

the human heart, for it is the natural tendency

of every living creature to try to unravel

whatever is hidden from him. Being impelled

by this tendency, some, braver than others,

have been able to penetrate the depths of the

Unseen, and such people are called Mystics.

They use a language with which the world

is not acquainted, they perceive truths which

to them are more real than what we see in

the external universe, but because these do

not coincide with the experiences of everyday

life, the common mind cannot comprehend

their visions or understand their words, and

therefore it looks upon them as mysterious.

Anything that is out of the ordinary course

of events is always so regarded, and it is for

this reason that the things of the spiritual

realm are believed to be so full of mystery.

As it is said in the Bhagavad-Gita : "That

which is night to all beings, therein the self-

subjugated remains awake; and there whereall beings are awake, that is night for the

knower of Truth.

"

This shows the two poles of existence. The

2 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY

spiritual plane, which to the wordly-minded

is darkness, seems like bright daylight to the

wise; while the sense plane, where ordinary

mortals are awake and active, appears as

dark night to the wise man who has realized

the unreality and fleeting character of the

sense world. If we recognize this and try to

grasp the true meaning of what the highly

evolved ones bring to us, we shall find that they

are talking of another sphere of existence as

yet unexplored by us. Each one of us possesses

a certain understanding, but it is at present

very limited; as our knowledge grows, how-ever, perhaps the very things which now wecannot accept, because they seem unreal and

impossible, will become realities to us.

Regarding the rise of mysticism, we can-

not say it began at any particular period of

history. Nor can we claim that it is the

exclusive property of any one race or creed,

for it is to be found everywhere, among all

religions and nations ; and if we could destroy

the whole of existing knowledge and leave

mankind stranded without the help of anypast records, very soon we should see the

struggle for Vision beginning afresh and manwould again discover the same hidden truths.

It is the inherent tendency of the humanheart, which naturally seeks to penetrate and

reveal what is obscure. We find Mystics

among the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Hin-

dus, the Sufis, the Neo-Platonists, as well as

among the Christians.

YOGA AND THE CHRISTIAN MYSTICS 3

Everywhere has been the same hunger for

knowledge of the Final Reality towards which

all life converges. As Prof. Royce says in his

"Studies of Good and Evil"; "If you pass

backwards from Eckhart, past Dionysius, past

Plotinus, far beyond and before the Christian

era, you find, as I have already said, in the

very dawn of Hindoo thought, in the Upani-

shads, the same problem, with the same ele-

ments . . . already one conceives the world

as the world of the Absolute Self." The Vedic

sages define the Absolute as "the One God,

hidden in all beings, all-pervading, the Abso-

lute Self within all beings, watching over all

our works, the Witness, the Perceiver, the

Only One." (Svetasvatara-Upanishad.) "It

is wise to confess that all things are one,"

the Greek Heraclitus declares; and Plotinus,

the Neo-Platonist, writes: "Good is not ex-

ternal to anyone, but He is present with all

things, though they are ignorant that He is

so" ; while a Sufi poet sings

:

"I have put Duality away. I have seen the twoworlds as one

;

One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call;

He is the first, He is the last, He is the outward,

He is the inward."

The effort to pierce the veil and come face

to face with this One, has led men every-

where to evolve practical methods of spiritual

development. In India these methods were

systematized into a science known as Yoga,

a Sanskrit term which means literally "union"


—union between the Absolute and the indi-

vidual, between God and the worshipper, be-

tween man's higher and lower self: what is

called by the Christian mystics the Unio Mys-tica, or the mystic union. "Now what is this

union?" we read in the "Theologica German-ica." "It is that we should be of a truth

purely, simply and wholly at one with the

One Eternal will of God, or altogether with-

out will, so that the created will should flow

out into the Eternal Will, and be swallowed

up and lost therein, so that the Eternal Will

alone should do and leave undone in us." Oras it is said in the Mundaka-Upanishad : "The

wise having reached Him, Who is omnipre-

sent, devoted to Him, enter into Him wholly

. . . The knower of the Highest Absolute be-

comes like Him and one with Him."

That there is no fundamental difference

between the Mystics of the Occident and the

Mystics of the Orient becomes more and moreapparent as we study without bias; for in

both we find the same intense yearning to

reach the Ultimate, to solve the problem of

the Invisible. All alike in their strivings are

led to the same practice of discrimination, re-

nunciation, concentration and contemplation,

which constitute the basic principles of Yoga.

The first step in the spiritual journey mustalways be to distinguish between the Real

and the apparent; the second, to choose the

Real and break away from the unreal; the

result of this will be single-heartedness or


concentration on the Real, which inevitably

leads to the habit of contemplation.

"When the interior and contemplative manhas followed after his own eternal image," the

Flemish priest, John Ruysbroeck, writes, "he

is illumined by divine truth and partakes

anew every instant of the eternal birth; and

by means of the light he enters into divine

contemplation. And from this comes to pass

a loving union, wherein above all else our

eternal beatitude resides." And Meister Eck-

hart declares : "When jointly are the faculties

withdrawn from all their business, their

objects all, then will this word be spoken.

Hence it is said: 'In the midst of silence wasthe secret word spoken unto me.' The morethou art in trim all faculties to indraw and

forget all things and all their forms that ever

were received into thyself, the more thou dost

forget the creature thus, so much the nearer

art thou unto this, so much the readier for it."

For "Ignorance is destroyed by the unbroken

practice of discrimination," we read in Patan-

jali's "Yoga Aphorisms." "Sarnadhi, or God-

Union, comes through concentration and the

discrimination of the Real; while through

meditation the Yogi's vision becomes unob-

structed from the atom to the Infinite."

Thus we see that wherever a desire for spi-

ritual vision arises, there is a natural impulse

to indraw and concentrate the mind on things

not visible to the senses. As the physical eyes

close to external objects, the inner spiritual


eye opens—the eye which all the Mystics call

the third eye—

"that eye whose vision is clari-

fied by Divine grace and by a holy life," so welearn from Richard of St. Victor. "This eye

enjoys the immediate discernment of unseen

Truth, as the eye of the body sees sensible

objects." Or as Lord Krishna declares to Ar-

juna in the Bhagavad-Gita : "But with these

eyes of thine thou canst not see Me. Behold

I give thee Divine sight."

The ideas of renunciation and contemplation

are little in accord with our present over-

active, acquisitive life ; but if we value the

effect as we find it in the Saints and great

Seers, then we should not reject the cause.

How, indeed, can we really honor and admire

the result, if we are unwilling to accept the

methods which the Yogis and Saints have em-ployed to attain their sainthood? And there

can be no doubt that they all practised rigid

self-denial, as well as constant meditation, in

order to subdue their lower nature and purify

their vision. Everywhere, too, the methods

employed are strikingly similar in nature. Theidea of renunciation, so marked in the life of

St. Francis, is not peculiarly Christian. Indian

history is full of like examples of Yogis or menwho renounced wealth, comfort, even throne,

in order to gain God-union. To my mind, all

Saints, whether Christian or non- Christian,

are alike in their saintliness ; there is no dif-

ference when the Absolute Union is reached.

A saintly character is like a flower; wherever


he may be, he has the same fragrance, the

same quality of radiating light and loveli-

ness. Mysticism, it is true, has more often

been identified with the East ; but if we meanby mysticism spiritual vision transcending

the limitation of the senses, it is not confined

to the Eastern world, but is to be found wher-

ever there is spiritual illumination.

That the East, however, and especially

India, had a strong influence on 'the early

Christian Mystics cannot be denied; for it is

generally admitted that the so-called Diony-

sius the Areopagite, one of the most eminent

of early Christian Mystics, and St. Augustine

imbibed their "passion for the Absolute" as

well as their methods from Plotinus, the great

Neo-Platonist, wrho was an avowed student

of Eastern thought. It is even recorded that

he joined an expedition to Persia in order to

study the philosophy of Persia and India.

On his return he settled in Rome, where he

preached asceticism and the joy of the con-

templative life with such impressive eloquence

that many among the hundreds of leading

Romans, both men and women, who flocked

daily to hear him, gave all their fortunes to

the poor, set their slaves free and took up the

life of renunciation, much as did later the

followers of St. Francis.

It is only through one-pointedness of devo-

tion and singleness of purpose that we are

able to penetrate the mysteries of the unseen

universe; and many of the Saints and Sages,


in attempting to do this, transcend the sense

plane altogether and become so focused and

united with the Spirit that the things of the

material world cannot disturb them. "As

happened to St. Paul," Meister Eckhart

writes, "what time he said, 'Whether in the

body I cannot tell ; or whether out of the body

I cannot tell. God knoweth.' Then had the

spirit all the powers of the soul so altogether

drawn into itself, that from him had the body

disappeared. Then was the memory no moreat work, nor reason, nor the senses; neither

the faculty whose care it is to tend and guide

the body; upgathered were life-fire and heat

of life; hence did the body not decline away,

.though for three days he neither ate nor

drank."

It is also told of Brother Bernard, in "The

Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi," that

on one occasion, while he was assisting at

Mass "with his whole mind uplifted unto God,

he became so rapt and absorbed in God that

when the Body of Christ was elevated, he sawnothing at all, nor kneeled him down, nor

drew back his hood, as the others did; but

without movement of his eyes, with gaze fast

fixed, he stood from morning until Nones, not

heeding aught; and after Nones returning to

himself again, he went through the Housecrying with a voice of glad surprise." This

shows that the state of Samadhi or super-

consciousness, described in the Vedic Scrip-

tures, is not peculiar to the Indo-Aryans, but


that wherever intensity of spiritual yearning

lifts man above the limitations of the senses,

he enjoys the ecstasy of a new consciousness,

which is, as the Upanishads declare, "beyond

mind and speech."

The Blessed Angela of Foligno dwells on

the wonders of this state. Threefold is the

transformation of the soul, she declares. Thefirst is "when the soul uses all its endeavor to

imitate the life of Christ, the second is whenthe soul is united to God and loves God, the

which, however, it is able to explain and set

forth in words. The third is when the soul

is so entirely made one with God and Godwith it, that it knoweth and enjoyeth with Godthe most high things, the which cannot pos-

sibly be set forth in words nor imagined save

by him who feeleth them."

The whole science of Yoga is directed to-

wards the attainment of this state of super-

consciousness or Samadhi, and it offers various

methods by which it may be accomplished.

Recognizing the great diversity in humannature, it lays down different paths for the

varying constitutions of mankind. To the

active it points the way through Karma-Yogaor realization by means of selfless perfor-

mance of duty; Raja-Yoga shows how the

same end may be gained through the sub-

jugation of bodily passions and the practice

of concentration and meditation; those of

strongly intellectual and philosophic tenden-

cies are led by Jnana-Yoga or the path of right


discrimination; while Bhakti-Yoga teaches

how through whole-hearted devotion one

may attain God-Union. Whichever of these

methods a man chooses, however, he must in

some measure practise all, if he would attain

the state of beatitude enjoyed by the Mystics.

But, we may ask, why should we not be

satisfied with our present state of conscious-

ness; why should we care to develop any

other? The Yogis reply that until man has

gone beyond the three ordinary states of con-

sciousness,—sleeping, dreaming and waking—and reached the fourth state, he cannot be

free from error; and so long as he blunders,

he must suffer. In the state of supercon-

sciousness he has all the strength of the other

three states and something more ; for he tran-

scends the limits of the body, mind and senses

and finds that which satisfies his soul. In

order to taste this superconscious joy, how-ever, we must as St. Paul says, "look not

at the things which are seen, but at the things

which are not seen; for the things which are

seen are temporal, but the things which are

not seen are eternal." And the Unseen can

only be perceived through the power of medi-

tation. "That supreme happiness, which be-

longs to a mind which by deep meditation

has been washed clean from all impurity and

has entered within its Divine nature," we are

told in the Maitrayana-Brahmana-Upanishad,

"cannot be described here by words, it can be

felt by the inward power only."


In the same Upanishad we read : "Water in

water, fire in fire, ether in ether, no one can

distinguish them ; likewise a man, whose mind

has entered into such union with the Supremethat it cannot be distinguished from Him,attains freedom"; a verse which finds its echo

centuries later in these words of St. Bernard

:

"As a drop of water poured into wine loses

itself and takes the color and flavor of wine

;

or as a bar of iron heated red-hot becomes

like fire itself, forgetting its own nature; so

in the Saints all human affections melt away,

by some unspeakable transmutation, into the

Will of God."

Thus it is obvious that this higher state of

consciousness has been known in all ages.

Vedic Seers, Greek Philosophers, Mohamme-dan Saints and Christian Mystics have all

alike experienced its transcendental, beatific

joys. The reality of this consciousness wasmost forcibly illustrated in our own time bythe great Seer and Mystic, Sri Ramakrishna,

who lived in India during the latter part of

the nineteenth century. It is known that he

attained the highest state of Samadhi or God-consciousness, in which he forgot his bodily

existence altogether and remained absolutely

united with his Ideal, Whom he called the

Divine Mother. As he communed with his

Mother in the hours of superconscious illu-

mination, he came to realize that the Infinite

Spirit, Whom he worshipped as the Motherof the universe, was no other than the One


Whom the Christians invoke as Father in

Heaven, the Mohammedans as Allah, the

Jews as Jehovah, the Zoroastrians as Ahura-Mazda. And he declared: "Many are the

names of God, and infinite the forms that lead

us to know Him. Common man in ignorance

says: 'My religion is the only one, my reli-

gion is the best'; but when his heart is illu-

mined by true knowledge, he realizes that

above all these wars of creeds and sects pre-

sides the One, Invisible, Eternal Deity."

Although practically without education,

knowing little of history or geography, yet

by finding within himself that Truth which is

the common birthright of all mankind, he

gained a universal understanding and a catho-

licity of vision which has rarely been equalled.

Having himself attained union with the

Supreme Spirit, he realized his union with

every human heart and the union of all humanhearts with the Absolute.

When spirituality becomes vital, then the

world produces Saints and Sages, who makeGod a reality to us. But when material ad-

vancement is the aim of existence, men are

swept by desire for things of this life only.

Then the lives of the Saints grow more mys-

terious and their words lose all weight. Let

us hope and pray that we may again revive

the visions of these Mystics and experience

for ourselves the joys of the contemplative

life and of God-Union.

WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR

THE PATH OF DEVOTION. (Fifth Edition.) Cloth$1.10. Paper 85 cents.

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